


When the Walls Come Crumbling Down

by pinkstarpirate



Category: Inception (2010)
Genre: F/M, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-12
Updated: 2014-09-12
Packaged: 2018-02-17 02:05:51
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2292938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pinkstarpirate/pseuds/pinkstarpirate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When James gets sick and needs a bone marrow transplant, Cobb has to call Arthur.  Perhaps Arthur is the match who can save James' life.  Arthur is James' biological father after all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When the Walls Come Crumbling Down

**Author's Note:**

> I'm adding some of my old fics to my archive. I'm going to be cleaning up some of my old one-shots and posting them. This is one of the fics that I'm particularly proud of. I hope that you enjoy it.

 

The world loves to give its very worst to Dominic Cobb. First, Dom loses his wife; then, he is estranged from his children; and finally, he is forced to risk his life to get back to them. It's almost like he hasn't already gone to hell and back when some higher power decides to torture him just a little more.   
  
James starts complaining that he doesn't feel well, and he doesn't play like a normal child of five. Cobb also notices dark bruises blooming all over James' body. James should be bounding with energy and digging up worms and going on great boyhood adventures, but instead he just curls his tiny body up on the couch and places his head on Dom's lap and sniffles as they watch TV together.

It doesn't take long for Cobb to make a doctor's appointment. Ever since he missed the warning signs with Mal he examines everyone he loves carefully. Something is wrong with James. Cobb has been away a long time, but he knows this isn't James. He can't put his finger on it, but his pediatrician does after a battery of tests.

When he receives the phone call there is only one word that Dominic Cobb latches onto.

"Leukemia?" Cobb asks. He asks again, still completely dumbfounded by it.

He should have listened when the doctor told him to sit down. His arms and legs grow numb, his mind swims, and he can't grasp onto anything.

Cobb feels like he is drowning, and it feels suspiciously like falling into limbo.

* * *

_(Cobb)_

Mal takes his hand and they walk through the streets of the city they created. There are moments when this feels so absolutely perfect. Each building is beautifully designed. Every moment they live is with each other. They kiss and laugh and love, because it is all theirs.

Dom looks at his wife and wonders if there is anything more beautiful than her. When she laughs he laughs with her, and for a moment he wonders why it feels like something is missing. The thought turns in his mind and nags at him for days. He holds Mal's hand tightly, but wonders why his other hand is empty.

* * *

Arthur checks his phone after coming out of a meeting with a potential client. He groans as he sees that he has missed five calls. Not many people know about this number, so he worries and checks the phone log. All five are from Cobb, but there isn't a single message. Arthur speed-dials Dom as soon as he can tuck himself into a secluded alleyway.

"Dom? What's wrong?" he asks as hears Cobb's frantic hello.

Cobb's voice sounds strangled and filled with worry. The only other time Arthur ever heard Cobb this crazed is when Arthur got the phone call that Mal had committed suicide. Arthur is patient, but he feels his heart starting to race. This isn't going to be good.

* * *

_(Arthur)_

"Arthur, dear, come back to bed," she says in that sweet, oh-so inviting way of hers. Mal is draped over Dom's naked body. She is still wearing the silk camisole Arthur bought her for her birthday, and she looks stunning in it. A sheet is pulled around her waist and she looks wonderfully sated.

"Mal," Arthur tells her with a laugh, "Someone has to be the responsible one. We're meeting with an investor today, and I have to finish the presentation."

"The one Dom was supposed to do?" she asks. Her voice tinkles and brims with playfulness as she kisses Dom's chest. Dom just snores a little louder in response. "You spoil him, Arthur."

"And you spoil us both," Arthur says as he makes his way to the bathroom for a hot shower. It wouldn't do to meet investors smelling like sin and sex, otherwise known as Dominic and Mal Cobb.

* * *

Cobb swallows audibly, and Arthur can hear him try to calm himself down over the phone. "It's James. I need you…" and he struggles with words, like he's trying to make sense of it, or push everything all out at once.

"Just calm down," Arthur says in his best controlled voice. Mal always said he was their voice of reason, but Arthur is just good at putting on the façade.

"James needs a transplant and I can't. I can't…" Cobb repeats and Arthur knows that Dom is crying. He can hear it in his voice as plainly as if he were there to see it. "I don't even know if you're a match, but you have to. Please, you have to."

The words mean only one thing. Arthur has to, because Dom isn't James' father, Arthur is.

* * *

_(Arthur)_

Mal laughs and tilts her head to the side. She has such a beautiful smile. Dom's arm is still slung around Arthur's waist, and it is almost possessive. Mal leans in and cups Arthur's face and kisses him long and slow until Arthur can't breathe. He feels Dom's hand on his cock, stroking it lazily from behind as Mal straddles Arthur on her knees.

"You are very naughty, Arthur," she says as she breaks the kiss long enough to sink down on his length.

"I'm naughty?" Arthur laughs as his voice catches.

Why is it so damn hard to breathe when he is sandwiched between these two? Mal feels exquisite around him. Her hips rotate slowly as Dom palms her breasts. Dom's mouth is kissing the space between Arthur's shoulder blades. And breathing…breathing is just fucking impossible.

"Oh God," Arthur cries out as Dom bites the top of his shoulder and then Mal kisses the spot lovingly, then they exchange roles. Mal nips at Arthurs neck, and this time Dom licks and kisses the pain away. Arthur lets out a low, needy moan.

"He is so sensitive," Mal says teasingly. "Making such sounds. Such dirty sounds," she says again, this time pressing her mouth against Arthur's ear and moaning low and sweet for him.

Arthur's fingers are secure on Mal's hip, but he lifts one hand away and reaches between them to gently thumb her clit. She bucks on his lap and giggles and playfully slaps his chest with her hand.

"See, naughty, no?" she asks Dom, her eyes nearly shut while her mouth is half open in pleasure.

"Very naughty," Dom agrees and urges Mal and Arthur to fall together onto the mattress. Arthur on top, and Mal beneath him.

Arthur begins a rather slow pace, nothing too fast, because Dom is carefully fingering him from behind. Dom crooks his finger just so and Arthur growls into soft skin of one of Mal's breast.

"I think he likes it, Dom," she tells her husband.

"Of course he does," Dom replies, and Arthur can't help but find Cobb's cockiness endearing.

When Dom finally does push his way into Arthur, the three of them are almost completely gone. Arthur feels addicted to both of them, and he never wants to let go. He loves Dom and Mal, He knows he shouldn't, but he does.

Arthur moans Dom's name and Cobb sets a fast pace. Mal's hoarse voice is crying out for more, because she is insatiable, but Arthur listens and follows the quick-paced rhythm.

He can't deny that it is probably the best orgasm he's ever had. Mal knows just how to ride Arthur from below, meeting his thrusts with her beautiful curvy hips every time, and Dom knows just the right angle to fuck Arthur until he is a quivering mess. However, it is what they say afterwards to him that nearly makes him burst. They whisper the most wonderful things to Arthur, and it makes him feel wanted and appreciated. They even tease him a little.

It's very simple. They love him.

* * *

They are together now.  Arthur sits on a chair in the hospital waiting area.  Dom paces the hallway.  He can't sit still enough to be in the room with James, so Miles is keeping his grandchild company. Dom turns to Arthur. He knows the doctors have to run their tests, and there isn't anything either of them can do until they know whether or not Arthur is a match.

Dom catches Arthur watching him.  Dom would go sit by Arthur, but he knows what would happen if they did. Arthur would try to help him through this, probably put an arm around him, but it wouldn't be good for Miles to catch the two of them being any sort of intimate. It is already difficult enough trying to explain why he had to call a business associate who was half way around the world to be tested to see if he was a match.

Cobb knows how this must seem. Miles doesn't need to think that kind of thing about his daughter. He doesn't need to have more scandal unearthing itself from the depth of Cobb and Mal's relationship.

"Dom," Arthur says, and he is there, placing his hand on Dom's shoulder.

"Not here," is all that Cobb can say as he pushes at Arthur's hand. He tries to ignore the hurt in his friend's eyes, but Arthur listens. Arthur's hand drops from his shoulder and he shoves into his trouser pocket.

"Please sit. These tests take time," Arthur says as he motions toward a chair. Dom doesn't want to sit, but he does.

Dom can't shake the horrible, uneasy feeling. It looms in the back of his mind. It tells him he will lose James, just like he lost Mal. In all truth, he even lost Arthur in the end, because they were never the same after Mal's death. Even though Arthur always stayed by his side, and was still there in a way, Cobb couldn't find the same happiness he had as a younger man.

Cobb almost doesn't notice a new doctor making haste down the hallway, but Arthur does, and he stands to greet him.

"Hello, I am Dr. Morioka. I'm here to take over the case of James Cobb," he says as he shakes Cobb and Arthur's hands.

When Cobb gives Arthur a rather confused look, he just shrugs and says, "I called in a favor to our favorite client."

It is unspoken, but understood. This Dr. Morioka is probably one of the best doctors in the United States, if not the world. Saito only works with the most talented people afterall.

This doesn't take away all of Cobb's anxiety, but a giant weight lifts off his back. He realizes he isn't alone in this. He isn't running and scared, he is facing this problem head on and with the help of people who care for him.

When the conversation with the doctor is over, Arthur gently squeezes Cobb's arm and this time he doesn't shrug it off.

* * *

_(Mal)_

"Dom, where is my, um, my…" and Mal says a word in French, but Cobb doesn't know it. He gives her a confused look and it makes her pout. She purses her lips into a frustrated, tight line as she once again tries to communicate with her husband. "My glove for the oven."

"Your ovenmit?" Arthur asks as he holds it up from its hiding place in the utility drawer.

"How did it get there?" she puzzles and waddles over to Arthur to snatch it from him. He holds it just high enough that it is out of her reach. Mal gives him a rather pointed look, but he just laughs at her.

"It isn't nice to tease a pregnant woman," she hisses.

Arthur doesn't say a word, he just places one hand on her stomach and gazes at his fingers and her belly for the longest time. It is the most serene look she has ever seen on his face.

"I'd like one of my own someday," he says quietly.

This is the first time Mal has the inkling that there might more between herself and Arthur.  She didn't know that her husband shared this affection until he came and placed his hand atop Arthur's and whispered, "Someday."

She smiles as her heart fills to the brim. At least Mal knows her daughter will be born into love, and that is what really matters. Mal is grateful to be constantly surrounded by love. That is all she has ever wanted.

* * *

"I'm sorry," Dr. Morioka says to Cobb. "The sample wasn't a match."

Arthur watches the blood drain from Dom's face. "However, we can go ahead at this point and check the registry. If there are matches we will contact those individuals right away. We will expedite this, because I don't think we can wait much longer on treatment."

Arthur helps Cobb find a seat, but he also needs one for himself. This might be a father's burden, but even though James was raised as Cobb's child, he is still Arthur's biologically. This is Arthur's burden too. This is the reason why he visits the children often and always brings presents. It is why he agreed to step in and visit James and Phillipa in lieu of Cobb when Cobb couldn't go home. Arthur wants to hug the boy and be more than just Uncle Arthur, but he knows that James doesn't see him as a father, and he probably never will. Just like Dom will probably never truly be Arthur's lover again. These are things he must accept in life.

Life is often about sacrifices, and Arthur is good at that. Even if it takes all of his strength to distance himself from the things he loves.

* * *

_(Arthur)_

"You must hold him," Mal says. She looks so worn out, but she is glowing and smiling, and the tiny wriggling bundle in her arms is making soft crying sounds.

"I…I can't," Arthur says, because he feels like this is an intimate family moment, but Dom is there and he lifts James up and places the tiny baby in Arthur's arms.

Arthur never knew that love at first sight was real, but then again, he had never been a father before either.

Dom told him only hours before. Cobb had received the birth certificate from the doctor and he noticed the baby's blood type. It wasn't the same as Mal's, nor Dom's. It was Arthur's. This was Arthur's child.

"It won't be your burden," Dom had insisted. "We were trying for a second child, and didn't really think that night in Berlin through very well."

The three of them darn well hadn't. If Arthur had known Mal wasn't on birth control he would have used a condom. However, the thought of being a father didn't terrify Arthur all that much. He liked the idea, and had ever since he felt Phillipa when she was still in Mal's belly all those years ago.

Arthur isn't the kind of man who cries, but as James snuggles into the crook of his arm a few tears fall down his cheek. Holding his son is a memory he will always cherish.

* * *

Arthur sits quietly at James' bedside. The kid was always such a tiny thing anyway, but now the hospital bed dwarfs him as he sleeps swaddled in blankets. Tomorrow James will start the treatment that will hopefully kill the abnormal white blood cells in his body. However, it will also kill all the healthy ones. The family knows James will have to be quarantined for a while, because his immune system will be next to nothing.

Cobb sits on the other side of the bed and holds his son's hand, and Arthur watches them both. He swears he sees more permanent worry lines forming across Dom's forehead. Arthur wonders what Cobb would do if he tried to kiss them away like Mal used to do. Part of him wants to be that kind of comfort to Dom again, but he knows there is a line he shouldn't cross. Perhaps it isn't exactly shouldn't, but Arthur doesn't really know how to cross it.

Maybe he has too much respect for the dead.

* * *

_(Arthur)_

Arthur cannot remember the last time he laughed this hard. Actually, he muses, he probably hasn't ever laughed like this. Mal is also doubled over, and Dom has tears streaming down his cheeks as he struggles to catch his breath.

"No, no, dear James," Mal laughs as she takes the remnants of the worm from James' mouth. The little toddler is making the most terribly disgusted face. "Those are not for eating. Spit it out now. Spit," Mal urges as she tries to quell her laughter. She holds her hand under James' chin and lets him spit the half-chewed worm out. Some of the pieces are still moving, like severed worms often do.

"That is sooo disgusting," Dom says as he watches his wife make a face. He and Arthur start another round of ruckus laughter. Phillipa, however, does not see the humor in the situation and leaves.

"Daddy, that's gross," she calls from the other room.

Cobb laughs harder and manages to get out a rather incomprehensible, "I know, dear. It is."

This is James' first hint of a lifelong obsession with worms. Arthur often wonders if the small child acquaints them with his parents' laughter.

* * *

James Cobb always had a strange affection for worms. He would dig and dig and dig until he found a tiny wriggling creature, and then he would smile. He would smile and hold it up proudly and show his father and mother and Uncle Arthur.

James Cobb loved worms, almost as much as he loved his parents and Uncle.

* * *

_(Mal)_

"I'm heading to London for a week on Friday," Arthur announces as he helps Mal set the plates for dinner. "And I arranged for a sitter this evening."

"Oh really," she says with a wink.

The trip is okay, because Arthur's business trip coincides with Dom and Mal's anniversary. It is something Mal and Dom always do alone. The vacation away from each other was sometimes warranted. This time even more than most.

James and Phillipa are chasing each other around the kitchen and weaving in and out around Mal. She tells them to settle down and turns to Arthur. "So tonight is a sendoff party, perhaps?" Mal asks

Arthur nods, and dances around the children as they shriek happily and begin their merry chase for a second time. "We have a potential client in London, so I think that business with the PASIV system is looking up."

Mal gives him a serious look. "I hope that you've weeded out the bad seeds, Arthur dear," she says as she brings the roasted chicken to the table. "I'm not interested in some of those offers."

Arthur had a short stint in the military where he used the PASIV system. It was the place where he met Mal and Dom, and Mal knows he has no desire to return to using it to brutalize other people, or steal information like some shadier clients want, but she still expresses her opinion all the same.

"Children, go tell your father than dinner is ready," Mal says in her luscious French accent.

Phillipa tries to imitate her mother. She turns to Mal and says, "Yes, mother," in her best version of English spoken by a Frenchwoman. It makes Mal and Arthur chuckle.

After dinner and after the sitter picks up the children, Dom, Mal, and Arthur sit on the couch and enjoy some wine. They all feel warm and happy as they enjoy each others' company.

Mal is the first to make a move. She is always the first.

Mal stands and sets her wineglass on the coffee table. "Who wants a show?" she asks, her lips curling into a rather seductive smile. Dom and Arthur share a laugh and each raise a hand.

"Oh good," Mal says as she lifts her shirt over her head slowly and drops it the floor.

Both Dom and Arthur are watching her with hungry eyes. She moves so gracefully, her hips swaying as she unzips her skirt and lets it also fall to the floor next to her shirt. She can tell they want to touch her, so Mal stays just a hair out of their grasp. She spins slowly, showing off the pretty lace bra and panties she put on just for this moment.

"Come here, Mal," Dom says. She laughs. As if an order like that could make her come to them.

"Please, Mal," Arthur adds, trying a less demanding approach.

She shakes her head, because she can be fickle and silly and a tease when it pleases her. Then she claps her hands together as she has the most brilliant idea. "Perhaps a show for me?"

"A show for you?" Dom asks. He lifts an eyebrow and shares a confused look with Arthur.

"Yes.  You kiss him," she tells her husband. Like this is anything new, Arthur and Dom kiss all the time. Mal makes a stipulation, "Slow and sensual. Like a lover," she tells them.

Dom shrugs, and falls victim to his lovely wife's whims. As he reaches out and tugs Arthur close, he whispers, "Well, he is my lover."

Mal giggles happily as Dom and Arthur's mouths work slowly against each other. She stops laughing and her breath catches when she sees their tongues meet and glide against one another.  Mal cannot hold back when Dom moans into Arthur's mouth and she sees the growing bulge in her husband's and lover's pants.

"You certainly know what a lady likes," she says as she saunters up to them. Their kiss appeases her and she kneels onto the couch in the middle of them.

Arthur's hand slips up her outer thigh and rests on her hip. She takes it and coaxes it between her legs, between the apex of her thighs so he can run his fingers up and down the silky material of her panties and feel the wetness of the fabric.

"Do not stop kissing," she says as Dom cups her breast. The boys do not stop. They kiss hot and heavily, and Mal joins them. Her lips on Arthur's and then Dom's, and then her mouth is on Arthur's neck, greedily sucking at his pulse point.

Arthur's fingers stop rubbing and he tugs her panties to the side and dips a long, thin finger into Mal. She is wet and so hot and her body clenches around him.

Tonight Mal actually lets them both have her at the same time. There is something new and erotic about the feeling of Cobb's cock filling Mal while Arthur presses into her from behind. It is new and exciting, and Mal cannot stop moaning as her two beautiful men fuck her until she is good and satisfied.

This is the final time the three of them are ever all together. When Mal drops Arthur off at the airport on Friday he says goodbye to Mal for the last time.

At least she says I love you right after she says her goodbyes. You know, just in case.

* * *

Ariadne cannot find the perfect black dress. She wants something simple and somber and modest, and she cannot find anything that works. This is Los Angeles, and one would think that even people in Los Angeles had funerals.

"I think this one is okay," Eames says as he holds up a tiny wisp of fabric.

"Not even in your dreams," she practically barks at him. She tries not to take her anger out of Eames, but it just seems to well up in her.

Her and Eames had met up with Cobb and Arthur earlier in the morning, and both of them looked so broken. She is angry at everything, especially whatever higher power allowed this tragedy. How could this happen after everything Cobb has been through? He didn't deserve to lose his wife, and he certainly didn't deserve to lose his child.

Ariadne doesn't even realize she is crying until Eames pulls her to his chest and lets her have a good sob. She feels guilty for the tears, because this isn't her loss, not even in the slightest.

* * *

_(Dom)_

Dom lies atop the hotel bed and stares at the ceiling. Arthur is beside him, probably not sleeping either.

Arthur had said it was a beautiful funeral, filled with flowers and people and so much love for a vibrant woman who was fiery and passionate.

Dom tries to hold back tears as Arthur turns in the bed and wraps his arms around him. It feels so wrong without Mal. Maybe it feels so wrong, because Arthur still feels right.

"It wasn't your fault," Arthur says as Dom can't hold back his sobs any longer.

Dom needs to grieve his wife, but it just hurts so much, because Arthur doesn't realize that this is his fault. He killed Mal, so he deserves this misery. Every minute and every second of it.

* * *

Funerals don't change much, Arthur thinks as he walks up the aisle of the church behind Cobb and Phillipa. Miles and his wife are already sitting in the pew. Both of them are practicing Christians and wanted a church memorial service. It is a horrible tragedy, because first they lose a daughter, and now they lose a grandson.

Arthur can't help but feel a little responsible. Perhaps if James was Dom's son, or if he had been a marrow match, maybe then something could have been done to prevent this.

It is a beautiful service, and the minister who is performing it recounts the memories the family wanted mentioned. There is the one about worms. How James loved them and how he once ate a worm and spit it into his mother's hand. There are memories about his adventures with his grandfather, and how loved to fish, probably because he got to bait hooks with worms.

There are also recounts of how strong James was in the face of the most adverse situation imaginable for a child. The minister told about how he was brave even when he got cancer, and how he took solace in the thought of being with his mother when his fight was over. The minister even recounted how James held his father's hand and said I love you that last day, because he was that kind of child.

The minister didn't mention the agony James went through, or how Arthur and Dom spent many, many sleepless night cradling the small child as he cried himself to sleep. Those aren't the kind of memories you want mentioned during a memorial service, but they fill Arthur's mind all the same. But other memories are there too, ones that only he and Dom and Mal are privy to.

Arthur remembers the feel of Mal's belly when she was eight months pregnant and James was kicking up a storm, and the way he cried when he held James for the first time as a baby, and the way that James gave the best hugs in the whole world because he threw his entire being into it. Just like Mal. Mal taught James how to hug, and it was glorious.

This is a moment that anyone would cry, and Arthur cannot help himself, though he locks his jaw and stares straight forward. He tries to ignore the few random tears that trickle down his cheeks. He doesn't look at Cobb, because Cobb is holding a crying Phillipa in his lap and he is shaking. Arthur can feel Dom's sobs next to him. Arthur cannot take that much pain at the moment, because he lost James too. They have both lost a son.

Arthur doesn't know if he believes in God or heaven or an afterlife, but in this moment he prays that there is one and that Mal and James really are together. It is the only thing that keeps him together, and for Cobb's sake, he cannot fall apart.

* * *

_(Arthur)_

"Uncle Arthur, when is daddy coming home?" James asks as he curls up next to Arthur on the couch. He looks like he is on the brink of tears, but he is trying to be the bravest he possibly can.

Arthur chews on his lip, because he really doesn't know what to say. He sees that James has the stuffed dog that Dom sent him hugged tight against his body.

"I don't know," Arthur says. The best thing he can tell James is the truth.

This is the moment that Arthur promises himself to bring Dom home. If not for James, for himself, because their family is broken and the only way they can put the pieces back together is if Dom is there.

* * *

Cobb's mother once told him that life is a pendulum. It swings back and forth. If you think about the best time in your life and how good that moment is, then the opposite is how bad your life can get, because life always equalizes. It swings back and forth from good to bad all the time.

Dom thinks about some of his happiest moments. He imagines sleeping in bed with Mal, or Mal and Arthur. He thinks about the joy of being a father, and the many, many years he spent in limbo with Mal. So much happiness, he thinks, so it is no wonder that now his life is filled with pain. He buried a wife and a son, and those two things didn't kill him. Now, he thinks, the pendulum has to swing the other way. He cannot imagine hurting more.  He decides to embrace the moments in his life to come.

Phillipa comes and stands next to him. She is holding two beautiful white lilies. One is for her mother and one is for her brother. She sniffles as she sets them down in front of the gravestones, but she doesn't cry too much. She's almost nine, and nearly a young-lady. She's growing up so fast. Time flies, even during the most adverse times.

"So what stories shall we tell today?" Dom asks her.

Phillipa shrugs, but she talks aimlessly at her mother and brother's graves for a good fifteen minutes. Some of it is silly things, things only important to a young girl, but others are deep and carve themselves into Cobb's heart.

Phillipa says she misses how her mother used to braid her hair, and how James used to put worms on her fishing hook because she hated the wriggly things. She misses laughing and hugging them. She misses teasing James and locking him in the closet till he screamed bloody murder. She laughs at that, and then cries and Cobb hugs her and holds her twice as tight to make up for the great hugs she couldn't get from her mother and brother.

It has only been a year, and the wounds left from losing James are still raw. Phillipa pulls away from her father and kisses him on the cheek. Dom isn't sure what she is doing until he sees her rush over to Arthur.  Phillipa wraps her arms around him and hugs him for all she's worth, just like James and Mal. Mal taught Phillipa how to hug too, afterall.

Cobb watches as Arthur falls apart and Phillipa comforts him.

Dom knows Arthur has always been there — right by his side through all this bullshit and tragedy and pain, but he's never noticed that it has been Arthur's burden too. The distance between them began when he and Mal fell into limbo and spent decades together. It was a wedge and it pulled him and Arthur apart and tore at the intimacy they had, then Mal's death made the distance wider, and James's death became the thing that pushed a chasm between them.

Arthur is strong and has always been there for Cobb. It is the first time in a long time that Cobb feels shame, because he knows that Mal didn't just love him, and he didn't love just Mal. He especially knows deep in his heart that he still loves Arthur.

With a deep breath Cobb takes a step toward Arthur and Phillipa. With each step the pendulum begins to swing further back toward a happiness that once was. Cobb puts his arms around Arthur and Phillipa and the three of them hold each other for the longest time. Happiness is just one step after another after another, Cobb thinks as he presses his lips against Arthur's forehead. Perhaps he should have made this journey long before now, but at least he's finally going.

* * *

_(Dom and Mal)_

Mal and Dom set up the PASIV machine. Mal's mother is there explaining to the general in charge how the operation is going to work. The general doesn't really seem to care what the clever French female scientist has to say. No, he is eager and looks like he is itching to jump right in.

Mal and Dom share a disappointed look, because though this is the practical application the machine was designed for, they both know shared dreaming could be used for so much more. Their momentary disdain for the military is interrupted when a clean-shaven sergeant walks up to them and extends a hand.

"Hello, you must be Mr. and Mrs. Cobb," he says, his face serious as he shakes both of their hands. "I'm pleased to be accepted into your program."

Dom and Mal come to know this soldier as Arthur, and they teach him how to dream and laugh and love.

_-fin_


End file.
